Very Few People Say “No Whites”: Gay Men of Color and the Racial Politics of Desire
Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Rather than individual preferences, examination of sexual fields demonstrates that what is considered desirable by a majority of gay men follows a predictable pattern and is embedded with larger social meaning that defines which characteristics have erotic worth and which do not. While there are many diverse sexual fields, with many different potentially desirable characteristics, we argue that race is a consistent gauge of desirability that spans across diverse sexual fields within the gay community leading to widespread incidences of “sexual racism.” While the idea of sexual racism has been widely discussed in the popular press, and academic studies have also documented the racial hierarchy in the gay community, there have been fewer attempts to systematically explore how such racialized hierarchies of desire are understood by gay men of color. In this article, we attempt to address sexual racism as it is experienced by gay men of color and examine the consequences that sexual racism has on members of these groups. At the same time, we show that gay men of color of color are not simply “victims” of sexual racism but actively confront racial hierarchies of desire.
Source: Sociological Spectrum
Authors: Chong-suk Han, Kyung-Hee Choi
Institutions: Middlebury College, University of California, San Francisco
Language: English
Topic: Gender and Feminist Studies
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2863058223